Prof. El-Minshawy thanks His Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for his patronage and support of Egyptian women to empower them economically, socially and politically 

 Prof. Ahmed El-Minshawy, president of Assiut University, opened today, Monday, January 13, the forum "rural women and achieving economic empowerment", in cooperation with the National Council for women, under the supervision of Dr. Mahmoud Abdulalim, vice president of the University for community service and Environmental Development, Dr. Ali Kamal Temple, director of the Center for monitoring and studying community problems at the University, Dr. Marwa Kadwani, rapporteur of the National Council for women in Assiut, and Dr. Abdullah Faisal, director of the Center for civil society support at the University.
 
The forum was attended by Dr. Mohammed Hussein, undersecretary of the Ministry of social solidarity in Assiut, Dr. Murtaja Abdul Rauf, President of the Al-Azhar region in Assiut, Dr. Asma Jaber Mehran, deputy director of the Center for monitoring and studying community problems at the university, as well as deans, vice deans of colleges, advisers to the president of the university, faculty members of various colleges, and representatives of the institutions of the civil society in Assiut.

  At the beginning of his speech, Prof. Ahmed El-Minshawy expressed his happiness to host this important forum at Assiut University, which comes under the slogan "productive rural women are the key to the success of society" to highlight the important role played by rural women and girls in the development of society.

  The president of Assiut University thanked His Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of the Republic, the first supporter of Egyptian women, her supporter, and defender of their rights, believing and convinced that empowering women is a national duty; by giving Egyptian women a golden era; guarantees many achievements, access to leadership positions that they have not reached before, as well as issuing many laws, fair legislation for women, and ensuring social protection for them.

Prof. El-Minshawy pointed out that the issue of women's economic, social and political empowerment is a key point in all the axes and programs of the Egyptian state's vision, in accordance with the directives of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and in implementation of the objectives of the national strategy to empower Egyptian women 2030, praising the state's support for women through various initiatives, including: the "Decent Life" initiative; and their role in improving the living conditions of rural women, through the services provided by the initiative; education, health, sanitation, decent housing, job opportunities and other fields, as well as the "Tamkeen", financial inclusion initiatives, mechanization of services, digital transformation, and various training programs to build women's capabilities.

  At the end of his speech, the president of Assiut University thanked the National Council for women for its important role in providing many projects aimed at empowering women economically and socially, as well as the “rural women” committee of the council, which is concerned with the development of rural women and their empowerment.he also thanked the Center for monitoring and studying community problems and the Center for civil society support to serve women, wishing success, success, and our homeland progress, security, and safety.

For his side, Dr. Mahmoud Abdulalim explained that rural women are an essential part of our society, and one of the most important reasons for holding the forum is to promote rural women and train rural women in simple crafts to achieve the goals and axes of sustainable development. 

In a related context, Dr. Ali Kamal temple pointed out that the forum includes the training of three groups of women from the villages and centers of Assiut governorate on simple crafts, namely: the manufacture of small dairy projects, the manufacture of artistic artifacts, small handicrafts, the preservation industry, and food packaging, in order to work small projects from home, and they are trained by faculty members from the colleges of Agriculture and qualitative education.

For her side, Dr. Marwa Kadwani thanked the university administration, headed by Prof. Ahmed El-Minshawy, for supporting the various efforts of the National Council for women, which seeks to reach its awareness, training and service services to rural women in all villages of the governorate, in cooperation with many concerned authorities, noting the importance of discussing the economic empowerment of women; to achieve Community Development and progress

Dr. Abdullah Faisal pointed to the role of the University's civil society Support Center in linking the University's development efforts with the efforts of various civil society organizations, given the importance of concerted efforts to achieve sustainable development, the most important pillars of which are women's economic empowerment, especially in the villages of Assiut.

   The forum included the presentation of models for small projects for rural productive women in Assiut, and the achievement of economic empowerment, such as: the model of the rural women's project for the Arab village of Kalabat in Assiut under the supervision of the association for Childhood and development, the model of tahwisha under the supervision of the National Council for women, the model of a future project, the model of the Bab Amal Project, and the model of the Vision project.

On the sidelines of the forum, the exhibition of rural women's products, the products of the Egyptian Association for hearing impaired in Assiut, and a number of NGOs such as: Ataa Without Borders Association, where the exhibition included clothes, bags, accessories, handicrafts, furnishings, as well as dairy products and agricultural products.